65 register; snag makes site inaccessible to many

On the first day of online registration for pre-medical test (PMT) counselling, 65 candidates registered their names for admission in government medical colleges.

Candidates who had cleared PMT exam can register their names after presenting an affidavit that if they are found guilty of passing the exam through unfair means, their admission would be cancelled immediately.

The online registration for candidates was not easy though as the server provided for the purpose had developed snag on Saturday evening itself, making the site inaccessible to many.

Pallavi Nair, a PMT qualified candidate, said, “I was trying to register my name for government medical colleges, but I couldn’t do it. After trying for an hour at the computer centre, I came back without registration.”

Like Nair, Roshlema Kujur went through the same inconvenience. Kujur said, “After failing three times, I was, somehow, able to register my brother’s name. Link was dropping after some steps too.”

The verification of documents will start from Monday and it will continue till Friday. After the verification of documents, candidates can lock their choices between Tuesday (July 23) and Sunday.

The medical education department will allot seats to candidates according to merit-cum-choice basis on July 31 after examining documents of candidates.

After the allotment of seats, selected candidates would appear in the college designated to them with original documents.

The candidates will pass through biometric test again at the time of admission. Like PMT, hand writing, photo and finger print will be crosschecked again in the college.

The counselling for private colleges will be held between August 1 and 10.

Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ajay Singh on Sunday accused the state government of trying to sweep PMT scam under the carpet. Singh said the big fishes involved in the racket have access to power and they are being protected.

They are not even being questioned, he said.

Demanding that investigation into the PMT racket be immediately handed over to the CBI, Singh said it was a huge scam in which several high and mighty might be involved and fingers were being raised on the minister concerned as well.

He said following arrest of the kingpin of the racket, some petty employees of Professional Examination Board ( PEB) have been arrested but top officials, who actually ran the racket with Dr Sagar, were not being questioned because of their access to ruling BJP leaders.

Referring to examination controller in the PEB, Pankaj Trivedi, Singh said he held a double charge in PEB despite the fact that he came from the higher education department and not the technical education department.

He was holding the key position of examination controller because of his proximity with the minister. His posting as examination controller was in violation of rules and it was done despite his dubious past record, he said.